Anvils were ringing with the hammer blows of blacksmithing students last week in Grove City, and
Jim Brown was thrilled to hear the sounds.

“I had one goal, and that was to get this place opened up,” said Brown, 60.

He was at Century Village, a restored historic area in Fryer Park, 3899 Orders Rd., where he
taught his first blacksmithing class.

Brown had awakened that morning with back pain so bad that he thought about going to the
hospital. But the forge smoke and red-hot metal took his mind off the ache. He was in his
element.

Brown was 18 when he began learning the horseshoeing trade as a farrier’s apprentice at Scioto
Downs racetrack. That eventually led to his own farrier business in Georgia and also the accident
that changed his life in the 1990s.

He was shoeing a mule when a rooster startled it. The mule jumped and fell on Brown, breaking
his back.

Unable to do the strenuous work of a farrier afterward, Brown turned to other types of
blacksmithing. He moved back to Ohio and began forging iron railings, fences and art pieces. He
also acquired a mobile forge and took it to fairs and festivals to demonstrate the craft.

“I love to teach,” he said.Which explains his dream of opening a school.

Several years of effort on the part of Brown, Century Village volunteers and Grove City
officials were needed to make it happen. They acquired tools from a retired smith, and a bellows
and forge were donated by Bob Evans Farm.

A few months ago, just as the project was nearing completion, Brown was hit with a new health
challenge. It was diagnosed as multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells.

Because he has a tumor in his right shoulder, he sometimes uses duct tape to affix his upper arm
to his torso and swings his hammer from the elbow.

The doctor’s recommendation was no swinging at all, but that isn’t an option, Brown said. It was
certainly out of the question for the first class.

His students — a grandfather, father and son — listened attentively as Brown, in a leather
apron, explained the nuances of the anvil, the proper use of tongs and the hazards of the
craft.

“Probably every one of you will get burnt,” he warned. “It’s an inherent thing with the
blacksmith business.”

A religious man, Brown sees the accident that led him to teaching as an act of providence. His
classes (see parks.grovecityohio. gov) promote friendships and build relationships. Maybe, he said,
that is his mission in life, and blacksmithing is his way to achieve it.

No matter what the future holds for him, he said, he wants the school to succeed.